Efficient, reliable, and real-time communication with minimal latency is a critical requirement for public safety organizations and first responders. Toward that end, the Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) adopted and standardized a suite of Land Mobile Radio (LMR) standards termed Project 25 (P25), as described for example, in the TIA 102-series documents. The emerging P25 standard defines the operation and interfaces of P25-compliant radio systems. Specifically, and in part, the P25 standard defines a standard for trunked systems.
A “trunked system” or “trunked network” refers to a radio system where a limited number of frequencies are shared among a large group of users. Trunked systems are particularly beneficial in specific instances where there is a limited number of available communication frequencies. The large group of users in a trunked system are each assigned to a virtual channel or “talkgroup” having a group identification (group ID). Moreover, in a trunked system, the number of talkgroups is not limited to the number of available communication frequencies, and can actually greatly exceed the number of frequencies.
Many fire departments and other public safety organizations currently use legacy analog, receive only pagers to relay voice traffic to their users. To support such pagers on a trunked system, the voice traffic is adapted to the capabilities of the pager (e.g., via a voice-to-text translation) and simulcast on a designated analog conventional channel for each talkgroup that needs to be relayed. However, this translates to additional, costly infrastructure and frequencies that require customer maintenance for each supported talkgroup. Nevertheless, as an increasing number of counties and states are adopting P25-based systems, including P25-based trunked systems, many users of legacy pagers are being compelled to adopt a trunked solution.
Thus, various challenges related to trunked systems need to be addressed. In particular, subscribers on a P25 trunked system continuously receive control channel data in accommodating the P25 standard. Inherent operation with continuous reception diminishes battery life of trunked pagers within a relatively short time-period, thus making their use on a trunked system impractical.
Accordingly, there is a need for a system and method of managing power consumption on a trunked network.
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Apparatus and method components have been represented where appropriate by conventional symbols in the drawings, showing only those specific details that are pertinent to understanding the various embodiments so as not to obscure the disclosure with details that will be readily apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art having the benefit of the description herein. Thus, it will be appreciated that for simplicity and clarity of illustration, common and well-understood elements that are useful or necessary in a commercially feasible embodiment may not be depicted in order to facilitate a less obstructed view of these various embodiments.